


Frame Convenient Peace

by reconditarmonia



Category: Coriolanus - Shakespeare
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Forced Marriage, M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 09:51:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18386030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reconditarmonia/pseuds/reconditarmonia
Summary: Rome and the Volsces find a new way to make peace.





	Frame Convenient Peace

Martius has offered up his body on the altar of war for Rome more times than he can count. It has mattered little who the enemy is or what land Rome's politicians want to people with farmers; Martius has been back in Rome or on another campaign long before that scorched ground could grow grain again. He is a sword in the Senate's hand, and has always been.

So what matter to him, Menenius asks, if the Senate decides to sheathe its sword, and bind it with the flowers of peace? It is his duty to his country, will he or nil he; the man who has braved sword and fire and mud and cold can hardly quail at marriage. Little will convince Volumnia that it is Aufidius, not Martius, who bears the ignominious woman's part in this — she would rather see her son a war hero than an instrument of victory, if the two must diverge — but nonetheless, she has always been a shrewder politician than he.

Left alone after the ceremony, Martius notices that Aufidius seems equally ill at ease: it is not quite what he dreamed, to have his enemy within his grasp and yet be expected to lie peacefully in a bed beside him instead of grappling together or grinding him into the dust at his feet. He sits upon the bed and removes his sandals, ignoring Aufidius as if they were like and like, two soldiers assigned to share a tent but nothing to each other, though his skin feels tight and hot and his mouth dry.

He knows Aufidius too well not to be ready when Aufidius's hand lands on his shoulder, or to suppose that the touch is tender; he drags Aufidius down to the ground beside the bed, and there, too, his enemy is ready for him.


End file.
